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12.11.2011

Lung King Heen

Not that many Chinese restaurants in the world have as big shoes to fill as Lung King Heen being the first and only Chinese restaurant in the world to receive 3 Michelin stars since 2009. Does that make it the best Chinese restaurant in the world?

We ordered the weekday Executive Lunch that came with 8 courses at a very good price point. Why would we have passed up on a US$55 weekday set lunch at a 3 Michelin Star restaurant? Surely our stomachs would regret it if we didn't do this. Some standouts are pictured below.

The soup of the day was made with watercress and sliced pork. The soup was milky in color from all the hours of slow boiling and the taste of the soup reflected perfectly just that. Every spoonful of soup was comforting and warming, I did not want it to end. Alas, I tried not to miss the last drop of it in the bowl.

The dimsum was very delicate prepared and cooked. Picking up a piece of the har gow with our chopsticks proved just how delicate these dimsum pieces were. Even before putting them into our mouths, we knew from the way we had to handle them with our chopsticks that the wrapper skins for the har gow and shiu mai were thin and delicate, just like how they are supposed to be. Good dimsum and dumplings are generally judged by how thin the wrapper skins are so that the filling is the main focus here instead of having to chew through the thick skin to get into the filling.

I usually never give spring rolls much thought but these were impressively crispy yet light with the delicate and thin skin used as the wrapper. Fried spring rolls have a tendency to fill you up especially when the less superior ones are made with thick skin and take up almost a quarter of the roll itself. But here, the filling made up of vegetable and turnip take centerstage. These spring rolls at Lung King Heen were excellent in every way.

My favorite was the poached chicken which totally delivered. I have had a lot of good chicken in my life but this was really something. I do not remember when was the last time I had chicken that reached this level of impression from the smooth meat texture. The delicious taste was also flavored in part by the rendered chicken skin and fat. The accompanying minced ginger added extra fragrance to the chicken.

Gradually moving into more intense flavors, the eggplant and fish fillet in mandarin sauce was very well prepared and served. The eggplant was not overly mushy (which would have been a big turn off for me) and not over cooked so that it still maintained a perfect texture.

Lunch was capped off with sweet corn pudding and sesame cookies. Not pictured was the double boiled almond sweet soup.

While we are not sure if we would go so far as to say that Lung King Heen is the best Chinese restaurant in the world, there is one thing for sure: we were impressed and the food was clearly very, very good. Service was close to impeccable and our teacups were never left empty for long. The food at Lung King Heen reflects Chef Chan Yan Tak and his team's philosophy in sourcing out only the freshest ingredients to produce delicate and authentic Cantonese cuisine.